Saturday 5^th April - Beyond Spring Crits at Hillingdon

Today was my first day back on the bike since last weekend’s race because first of all I was very stiff, in particular in my neck, so I couldn’t ride and then on top of this  I caught a cold! L There was a local women’s race at Hillingdon so I thought it would be a good idea to try out this race to see where I was fitness-wise considering I’d not done anything that week. During my warm up I could tell that I was still not completely over my cold but I decided to still do the race. There was a decent field of 20 or so women. The race was a decent pace, with a number of attacks, some of which I followed as knew the woman who was attacking was strong so I didn’t want to let her get away. Towards the end of the race I was definitely struggling more than I usually do in these local Hillingdon races. However, I got myself into a decent position for the sprint at the end and finished 6^th /20; the 6 of us had a clear gap off the front. Definitely a damage limitation race so pleased to have had a decent finish at the end and pleased that the race was over.

Sunday 6^th April - Redmon CC 25 G25/46 SEWTTS #3

 A very early start for a TT starting at 8:16! Plus absolutely horrible wet, windy conditions to ride in.  Annoyingly, I miss-estimated how long it would take me to ride to the start of the TT which was 2.5 miles away , so it was rather close arriving at 8:15 and not much time to rest before I had to set off. The start of the TT went rather well, apart from a slight hiccup where I couldn’t see very well because my glasses were steamed up and the rain. I accidently took a wrong turn off a roundabout as I couldn’t see which exit the marshals were pointing at! Oops…so I lost a few seconds there but I was  soon back on track. Overall, the rest of the TT was pretty steady, but I wasn’t feeling particularly strong (I was still recovering from my cold and a week not on the bike) so I just tried to maintain a good speed and not fade too much towards the end. It was the longest TT I’ve ever done, 25 miles, and overall I was glad to have finished and get back inside into the warm, with a decent time. Hopefully, I’ll be able to improve on that time when I’m on better form.